Christianity

Only sleepwalkers and fanatics slide through life without reconsidering their values and philosophical outlook. Still, I never expected to be challenged quite so fundamentally by a writer of vampire stories and bisexual erotica. Enter Anne Rice, the 68-year-old author of bestselling novels about the sexy undead and, pseudonymously, of various sadomasochistic-inflected tales. Since returning to her girlhood Catholicism more than a decade ago, she's also written a string of devotional volumes and "a spiritual confession" that might best be characterized as rhapsodic.

Prime Minister David Cameron is under fire for suggesting that Britain “should be more confident about our status as a Christian country.” That assertion came in a column the Tory leader wrote for the Church Times, an Anglican publication. In good Anglican fashion, Cameron was careful to add that “being more confident about our status as a Christian country does not somehow involve doing down other faiths or passing judgment on those with no faith at all.” He also confessed to being a “rather classic” member of the Church of England: “not that regular in attendance, and a bit vague on some of the more difficult parts of the faith.” The prime minister's diffidence didn't help him with his critics, who saw his “privileging” of Christianity as incompatible with contemporary multicultural Britain.

Republicans from time to time have accused President Obama of playing identity politics. Here's the problem: The electorate remains confused about his identity. The problem is most famously manifested in persistent conspiracy theories, driven by conspiracy-loving “birthers,” about Obama's birthplace and citizenship. But voters remain muddled about his religion as well, as a new Gallup poll confirms. The poll released Friday shows that just 34% of Americans can identify Obama as a Christian or, more specifically, as a Protestant.

DAMASCUS, Syria - President Bashar Assad made a symbolic Easter visit Sunday to the heavily damaged town of Maaloula, a Christian landmark enclave recaptured from Islamist rebels last week by government forces. The president's visit, broadcast on state television, underscored his efforts to portray himself as a defender of Christians and other minorities as he prepares for an expected reelection bid in the midst of a devastating war now in its fourth year. Maaloula and several of its historic churches sustained significant damage during heavy fighting and bombardment.

Prime Minister David Cameron is under fire for suggesting that Britain “should be more confident about our status as a Christian country.” That assertion came in a column the Tory leader wrote for the Church Times, an Anglican publication. In good Anglican fashion, Cameron was careful to add that “being more confident about our status as a Christian country does not somehow involve doing down other faiths or passing judgment on those with no faith at all.” He also confessed to being a “rather classic” member of the Church of England: “not that regular in attendance, and a bit vague on some of the more difficult parts of the faith.” The prime minister's diffidence didn't help him with his critics, who saw his “privileging” of Christianity as incompatible with contemporary multicultural Britain.

In a bow to the growing diversity of America's religious landscape, the Claremont School of Theology, a Christian institution with long ties to the Methodist Church, will add clerical training for Muslims and Jews to its curriculum this fall, to become, in a sense, the first truly multi-faith American seminary. The transition, which is being formally announced Wednesday, upends centuries of tradition in which seminaries have hewn not just to single faiths but often to single denominations within those faiths.

I can't let Forrest G. Wood's attack on Christianity go unremarked (Letters, Oct. 25). Christianity was the "ideological justification" for the enslavement of Africans only because the slave traders and owners happened to be Christian. To lay slavery in America at the feet of Christianity is the same sort of sloppy reasoning that condemns Islam because there are people who use it as the "ideological justification" for blowing up innocent people. Let's keep in mind that it was the same Christianity that provided the "ideological justification" for the Abolitionist movement that helped end the institution of slavery in America.

In their new book, "American Grace," Robert D. Putman and David E. Campbell make two assertions about the decline of religious affiliation in the United States, which they summarize in their Oct. 17 Times Op-Ed article, "Walking away from the church. " They correctly observe that Americans, especially the youngest generations, are rapidly losing a lot of their faith. The nonreligious are far and away the fastest-growing group, with nonbelievers having tripled as a portion of the general population since the 1960s and nonreligious twentysomethings doubling in just two decades.

A Church of England bishop said in an article published Friday that Christianity "must take a major share of the blame" for the Nazi attempt to exterminate the Jews. John Baker, Bishop of Salisbury and one of his church's leading theologians, said Christianity has "spewed out" anti-Semitism from the earliest times. He called for an act of "theological penitence" by Christians and urged them to disown "distorted features" of the New Testament.

In Letters to View (May 18) a writer bewails your mention of non-Christian Mother's Day celebrations. Wicca is not witchcraft, devil worship or Satanism. It is a valid religion; it is older than Christianity, which has consistently violated its own ethical code in attempts to destroy other people's religious beliefs. Wicca is much more wholesome than the people who gave the world the Spanish Inquisition, the Puritan oppressions and Nazi Germany. KATHLEEN BARTHOLOMEW, Los Angeles

April 19, 2014 | By Maher Abukhater, This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details.

JERUSALEM - Thousands of people gathered at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City on Saturday for the lighting of the “holy fire,” an annual ritual marking the Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion. The Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem battled his way through crowds shortly after midday to enter the church's small chapel, where what is believed to be Jesus' tomb is located. Minutes later, the pilgrims inside the small basilica cheered as he emerged carrying two lit bundles of 33 candles each symbolizing the age of Jesus at the time of his death.

JERUSALEM - Thousands of Christian pilgrims from all over the world filled the narrow streets of the Old City of Jerusalem on Good Friday to celebrate on the site they believe Jesus was crucified and buried over 2,000 years ago. The pilgrims gathered near the fourth station on Via Dolorosa, the street down which Jesus is believed to have walked on the way to his Crucifixion. Then they followed his path through that narrow alley toward the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where they believe Jesus was crucified and buried.

MAALOULA, Syria - From the debris-strewn front garden of the Safir Hotel, Syrian military commanders barked orders to troops taking cover in the smoke-shrouded maze of streets below. "If you hear any movement, throw hand grenades immediately!" a general advised on his two-way radio as he peered at the battle unfolding like a distant video game at the bottom of the hill. On Tuesday, Syrian forces were targeting the remnants of a rebel force in this historic town, long a center of Christian worship and pilgrimage.

Jim Kunau, the former football coach at Orange Lutheran and Anaheim Canyon, has been named the football coach and vice president for schools and strategic leadership for Temecula Rancho Christian. He was the fooball coach at Orange Lutheran from 1993 to 2011, winning two Southern Section titles. Eric.sondheimer@latimes.com

Randall Wallace didn't expect a rock-star reception when he went on the road to promote his faith-based drama "Heaven Is for Real" ahead of its Easter-weekend release. Yet at the First Assembly of God Church in Phoenix, 9,000 congregants greeted the filmmaker with a standing ovation. A few days later, 11,000 boisterous students packed a convocation in the sports arena at Liberty University, a Christian college in Lynchburg, Va., where Wallace, best known for writing the 1995 battle biopic "Braveheart" and directing the equestrian drama "Secretariat," spoke about "Heaven Is for Real.

Nora Gallagher's essay about the attacks on Christianity (Opinion, March 24) seemed to have tried hard to make it sound as if they are incessant and everywhere, that the persecution has been unrelenting since St. Paul wrote letters. This is getting to be a remarkably old saw and honestly has become just plain wearisome. This past season's fabricated "attack on Christmas" was one example in a long list. It doesn't matter if a religious connection is made to a governmental entity or not. Most people simply don't care because there is no widespread or threatening attack on Christianity.

The choice of Wilfrid Sheed's journalistic romp through conservative Christian-bashing as the Christmas morning centerpiece of the Commentary page was unfortunate. The appropriateness of the selection aside, Sheed's article exemplifies the skewed perspective of so many who use the holiday season as an opportunity to take potshots at traditional Christianity. After excoriating conservative Christians, he recommends contemplating "doing better (with) . . . Confucianism with its great family values, or Shinto with its unparalleled work ethic."

The world of Christian pop music gets the "Best in Show" and "A Mighty Wind" treatment in the clever, consistently amusing mockumentary "Jesus People. " The film, an offshoot of a Web series made popular on FunnyOrDie.com, brings together a deft comedic cast (including six of the series' original actors) who enjoyably sell this tale of the speedy rise and fall of a hapless Christian band named Cross My Heart. Formed under the aegis of the earnest, supposedly dying - and conspicuously bewigged - Pastor Jerry (Joel McCrary)

Several of Southern California's most prominent religious leaders held a vigil for immigration reform in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, underscoring a growing interfaith effort to change the nation's laws. Immigrants who are in the United States illegally "need mercy and they need justice," said Archbishop Jose Gomez, welcoming an array of Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders to the gathering at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Gomez, who has made changing immigration laws a hallmark of his three-year tenure leading the L.A. Archdiocese, described the current system as "totally broken," adding that federal laws punished families and children unfairly.